for so the Spirit calls it in the Book of Canticles and men we know are farre more curious in their Gardens then about their Fields But in this Church this Garden dress'd with Gods own hand there are some Plants that thrive and prosper more then others and those the Lord hath chosen to inoculate in the Tree of Life for every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth as himself hath told us that it may bring forth more fruit John 15. Let us all therefore have a care in our severall places that we amend our lives and yield fruits worthy of Repentance that being fruitful of good works in this present Nursery we may be all of us transplanted into the glorious Eden of eternal life I should now speak of Gods propriety in this Field and shew that it is ager suus Gods own Field alone but I have spoken of it sparsim through and in each part of this discourse and cannot but perswade my selfe that you all know the Earth is his because he made it and the World his because he governeth and directs it And therefore here I will conclude beseeching God c. SERMON II. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 21. 1637. MATTH 13. v. 25. But while men slept his enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way SPiritus isti insinceri non desinunt perditi jam perdere c. It is the observation of Minutius that the Devil being alienated from the love of God endeavours nothing more then mans destruction It is too great a misery as he conceives it to be miserable by ones selfe alone and Hell too hot to be â—â—dured if none else should endure it but the Devils upon this ground no sooner had the Lord made man but Satan laboured to undo him He had before procured himself a party in the Heaven of glories and amongst the Angels how much more easie was it for him to infect Paradise and seduce a woman In which attempt the issue proved so answerable to his hopes that man became devested of his chief indowments his Justice and Integrity Nor was there any way to repair those ruines but by the preaching of the word which he hath laboured ever since either to hinder that it be not preached at all or so to practise on the hearers that it be preached with little profit Three parts of that good seed which God had sown upon his Field are by those arts made barren and unprofitable and for the fourth that which did fall upon good ground and took root downward and began to bear fruit upwards even that if possible shall be corrupted in it self or mingled with a grain of different dangerous nature for sin as Chrysost hath noted he neither could destroy it in the seed nor scorch it in the blade nor choak it in the stalks as we are told he did in the former Parable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is resolved upon another neat device not like to fail this was to watch his opportunity and when the servants of the Husbandman were grown no lesse careful of their charge to scatter tares among the wheat and go his way Cum autem dormirent homines c. These words contain in them the two inseparable qualities of the old murderer his malice and his subtility his malice first express'd in this that he is inimicus ejus Gods enemie and secondly in his devilish plot to destroy Gods harvest sevit zizania in medio tritici his sowing tares among the Wheat His subtlety described in this first that he took his opportunity when as the servants of the Husbandman were fast asleep cum dormirent homines while men slept and lastly by his quick and crafty leaving of the place venit abiit he came secretly and departed suddenly Of this his speedy going thence and of the manner of his comming we shall say nothing at this time It is not for our benefit to be too zealous of his company in a business of this nature and therefore abeat let him go as for the residue of the Text we shall discourse thereof in these several Couplets First we shall speak unto you of the Devill and his diligence sevit inimicus ejus his enemy sowed next of the Seminary and the seed zizania in medio tritici tares in the middle of the Wheat and thirdly of the servants and their sluggishness cum dormirent homines while men slept of these in their order Victoria sine certamine constare non potest nec virtus ipsa sine hoste vertue is never made more amiable then by opposition nor should the valiant man be more remembred then the Coward if he had no Adversary how little had we known of David had he consumed his time in sloth and payed perhaps unto the Nations round about him for a secure and quiet bondage for this cause God hath pleased to let his enemy the Devil continue still and his creatures and to continue still a Devil had he but said the word he could have quickly made him nothing or had he pleased he could have made him meerly passive and only capable of torments but God did leave him as he was save that he cast him down to Hell ut eo superando vim suam vel exerceat vel ostendat that so there might be still some enemy on which to exercise his power and expresse his greatnesse I will put enmity saith God between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed not betwixt the Devil and us men though we do all descend from her who was the Mother of all living but between him and our Redeemer the promised seed the expectation of the Gentiles he only is of power to bruise the head of the old Serpent the Devil therefore is at enmity with him alone to him an enemy ex professo inimicus ejus his enemy to us an enemy no further then we have reference to him and are the children of his Kingdom the servants of his holy Houshold with this St. Chrysost accords Satan saith he doth bend his forces most against us men but the occasion of his malice is not so much in hate to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an inveterate hate to God whose badge and cognizance we bear just so the King of Ammon dealt with Davids servants not that he was displeased with them for how could they poor men deserve the anger of so great a Prince but that he bare no good affection to the King their Master In ancient times the Images of such as capitally had offended or otherwise were grown odious with the common people were broken down and publickly defaced in the chief assemblies on them the people used to expresse their fury when such as they distasted were above their reach too high for them to strike at Thus they of Rome effiggâ—es Pisonis in Gemonias traxerant had drawn the Images of Piso unto the place of execution had not
hill which shewes it self unto the eye of each beholder We may affirm thereof as doth St. Ambrose of the Sun deficere videtur sed non deficit the light thereof cannot be possibly extinguished although sometimes darkened Opprest sometimes it is as it hath been formerly by errors Heresies and false opinions supprest it cannot be for ever For magna veritas great is the truth and it prevaileth at the last however for a while obscured by mens subtile practises That Heresies shall arise St. Paul hath told us and he hath brought it in with an oportet oportet esse haereses in the Epistle And that there must be scandalls Christ himself hath told us and he hath told it too with a necesse est ut scandala veniant in the holy Gospel The reasons both of the oportâ—t and necesse we shall see hereafter when we shall come to scan those motives which might induce the Lord to permit these tares Sinite utraque crescere usque ad messem v. 30. Mean while it doth concern us to take special notice that as it pleased the Lord to give way to error and suffer sometimes heresies of an higher nature and sometimes false opinions of an inferior quality to take fast footing in his Church yet he did never suffer them to destroy his harvest but brought them at the last to apparuerunt The comfortable beams of truth dispersed and scoured away those Clouds of error wherewith the Church before was darkened and by the light thereof the foulness and deformity of falshood was made more notorious so that from hence two special Queres may be raised first why these tares or errors were so long concealed and secondly how they were at last revealed And first they were concealed as it were of purpose to let the Church take notice of her own condition how careless and how blinde she is in the things of God did not the eye of God watch over her and direct her goings Her carelesness we had before in dormirent homines when as we found her sleeping and regardless of the common enemy that time the tares were in their Sevit and no man would hold up his head to look unto the publick safety Her blindness we may note in this that being left unto her self she could not see them in crevisset when they put forth the leaf and the blade sprung up and that they did begin to spread abroad and justle with the truth for the preeminence If either no false Doctrines had been sowen at all or had they all been noted at the first peeping forth the Church might possibly impute it to her own great watchfulness pleaded some special priviledge of infallibility and so in time have fallen into presumption God therefore left her to her self that falling into sin and error and suffering both to grow upon her by her own remisseness she might ascribe her safety unto God alone whose eyes do neither sleep nor slumber The Church is then in most security when God watcheth over her when he that keepeth Israel hath his eye upon her Gods eye he being â—culus infinitus as the learned Gentile and totus oculus as the learned Father is her best defence Which if it be averted from her she walketh forthwith in darkness and the shadow of death subject to every rising error obnoxious to the practises of her subtile enemies And in this state she stands in this wretched state till he be pleased to shine upon her and blesse her with the light of his holy countenance the beames whereof discover every crooked way and bring them to apparuerunt to the publick view And to apparuerunt all must come every false Doctrine whatsoever there 's no doubt of that for Idem est non esse non apparere No Tenet is erroneous in respect of us till it appear to us to be so and till it doth appear to be so we may mistake it for a truth imbrace it for a tendry of the Catholick Church endeavour to promote it with our best affections and yet conceive our selves to be excusable in that it is amoris error not erroris amor In thâ—s regard our Fathers might be safe in the Church of Rome and may be now triumphant in the Church of Heaven though they believed those Doctrines which were therein taught or possibly maintained them with their best affections The errors of that Church were not then discovered nor brought to their apparuerunt and being taken or mistaken for sound Orthodox Tenets were by them followed and defended in their several stations So that we may affirm of them as once St. Peter of the Jewes novimus quia per ignorantiam fecerint we know that through ignorance they did it or if we know it not so clearly as St. Peter did yet we may charitably hope that it was no otherwise in those particular points and passages wherein we know not any thing unto the contrary He that makes any doubt of this what faith soever he pretends to shewes but little charity and makes no difference between an accidentall and a wilful blindness There are some errors in the Church like some Diseases in the body when they are easie to be cured they are hard to be known when they are easie to be known they are hard to cured but every error disease is of that condition that it must first be known the true quality thereof discovered or else it is impossible to prescribe a remedy But so it is not now with us nor any of our Masters in the Church of Rome as it was anciently with our fore-fathers in and of that Church Those errors which in former times were accounted truths or not accounted of as errors are now in the apparuerunt we see them plainly as they are and by comparing them with Scripture the true rule of faith are able to demonstrate the obliquity of those opinions and false Doctrines which they have thrust upon the Church in these latter ages And we may say of them in Tertullians Language Ipsa Doctrina eorum cum Apostolica comparata ex diversitate contrarietate sua pronunciabit neque Apostoli alicujus essâ— neque Apostolici The difference which appeares between the Doctrines of the Church of Rome delivered in the new Creed of Pope Pius quartus and those which were delivered once unto the Saints in the old Creed of the Apostles shewes plainly that they neither came from the Apostles nor any Apostolical Spirit so that in case we shut our eyes against the sacred beames of truth which now shine upon us or if they so long after the apparuerunt will not see those tares which are discovered to their hands both we and they are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utterly uncapable of excuse in the sight of God If any man will be so obstinately wedded to his own opinion as to take up his Lodging in a Pest-house after he hath been made acquainted with the present danger
Bishops and the vocation of the Ministry according to the ancient Canons the dignity of the Clergy in some sort preserved the honour and solemnity of Gods publick worship restored unto its original lustre the Doctrines of Religion vindicated to their primitive purity shew manifestly that they kept themselves to that sacred rule Ad legem testimonium to the Law and Testimony Two things there are especially considerable in the Church of Christ matters of Doctrine and of worship The first of these we find comprized in the Book of Articles the other in the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England In both of which the Fathers of this Church proceeded with a temperate hand having one eye upon the Scriptures the other on the practice of the Church of God in her purest Ages but none at all either on Saxonie or Geneva It s true indeed that Calvin offered his assistance to Archbishop Cranmer for the composing of our Articles si quis mei usus fore videbitur if his assistance were thought necessary and would have crossed the Seas about it But the Archbishop knew the man and how he had been practising with the Duke of Somerset ut Hoppero manum porrigeret to countenance Bishop Hooper in his opposition to the Churches Ordinances and thereupon refused the offer Latimer also tells us in a Sermon preached before King Edward Anno 1549. That there was a Speech touching Melanchthons comming over but it went no further then the Speech And he himself Melancthon writes to Camerarius Regiis literis in Angliam vocor that he was sent for into England but this was not till 53. as his Letters testifie the Articles of this Church being passed the year before in Convocation and the Doctrine setled God certainly had so disposed it in his heavenly wisdom that so this Church depending upon neither party might in succeeding times be a judge between them as more inclinable to compose then espouse their quarrells And for this Doctrine what it is how correspondent to the word of God and to the ancient tendries of the Catholick Church the Challenge and Apology of Bishop Jewel never yet throughly answered by the adverse party may be proof sufficient But we have further proof then that for the Archbishop of Spalato at his going hence professed openly that he would justifie and defend the Church of England for an Orthodox Church in all the essentiall points of Christianity and that he held the Articles thereof to be true and profitable and none of them at all heretical And he that calls himself Franciscus à Sâ— Clara in his Examen of those Articles denies not but that being rightly understood they do contain sound Catholick Doctrine Adeò veriâ—as ab invitis etiam pectoribus erumpet said Lactantius truly Now as the Church of England did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as once the Orator affirmed of the Grecian Oracles in the points of Doctrine so neither did it Calvinize in matter of exterior order and Gods publick Worship The Liturgy of this Church was so framed and fitted out of those common principles of Religion wherein all parties did agree that it was generally applauded and approved by those who since have laboured to oppose it Alexander Alesius a learned Scot did first translate it into Latine and that as he himself affirms both for the comfort and example of all other Churches which did endeavour Reformation and increase of piety The Scots in their first Reformation divers years together used the English Liturgy the fancy of extemporary prayers not being then took up not cherished as Knox himself confesseth in his own dear History And howsoever now of late they have divulged a factious and prohibited Pamphlet against the English Popish Ceremonies as they please to call them yet in the structure of their Reformation they bound themselves by Oath and by Covenant too to adhere only to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England Religionis cultui ritibus cum Anglis communibus subscripserunt as it is in Buchannan So for the other opposite party those of Rome they made at first no doubt nor scruple of coming to our publick Service or joyning with us in the worship of one common Saviour Sir Edward Coke a man who both for age and observation was very well able to avow it both in his pleadings against Garnet and his Charge given at the Assizes held in Norwich and the sixth part of his Reports in Cawdries case doth affirm expresly that for the ten first years of Queen Elizabeths Reign there was no Recusant known in England whose testimony lest it should stand single and so become obnoxious to those scorns and cavils which Parsons in his Answer unto that Report hath bestowed upon it Sanders himself in his seditious Book de Schismate shall come in for second Frequentabant haereticorum Synagogas intererant eorum concionibus ad easque audiendas filios familiam suam compellebant So he but not to stand upon his testimony or build so great an edifice on so weak a ground as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the suffrage and consent of the vulgar Meinie the Pope himself as Cambden doth relate the Story made offer to confirm our Liturgie the better to make up the breaches of the House of God which since the Priests and Jesuites have disswaded from out of a wretched policy to make them wider A point which verily that Pope had not yielded to being a very stiffe and rigorous Prelate but that he found the Liturgie to be so composed as it could no wayes be offensive unto Catholick eares Either the Pope must lose his infallibility and become subject unto error like to other men or else there is no error to be found in the English Liturgie Thus have we seen a Church reformed according to the prescript of the Word of God by the Law and Testimony A Church that seemes to have been cultivated by the Lords own hand planted by Paul and watred by Apollos God himself giving the increase A Church that grew up in the middle of two contrary factions as did the Primitive Church between Jew and Gentile and was the better strengthened and consolidated by the opposition Gods Field was no where better husbanded the good seed no where sowen with a clearer hand then it was in this O faciles dare summa Deos But as it fared at first with the Primitive Church so it hapned here We must not so far flatter and abuse our selves as to conceive there are no tares at all in our Reformation because it was first sowen with the Lords good Seed The Devil as he stayed his time donec dormirent homines till the servants slept so he made use of such a grain and used such subtile instruments to effect his purpose that many will not think them to be tares of the enemies sowing now they are awake But being they are come at lest to fecissent fructum unto the bringing forth of fruit we must needs challenge them for tares and
as the world would make them for St. Paul tells us of them That they are Labourers together with God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Fellow workmen of the Lord. It is the priviledge of Princes and great Commanders to say unto their Servants do this and they do it but for the Husband-man he is alwayes one in every business that concerns him and doth not say unto his people see that this be done but let us do it So that God doth not work the lesse because he hath so many Servants employed from time to time in his holy Husbandry He works not only by them but he labours with them For howsoever Paul may plant and Apollos water yet it is He alone that gives increase His Eye it is that doth direct them and his Hand that guides them as well as that it is his Word which is sowed by them And sowe they must continually in all times and places in season out of season without end or ceasing otherwise they will fall full short of that glorious title of being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Labourers together with Almighty God And on the other side it is to be observed withall that as the Priest is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Fellow-Labourer with God so are the people called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Husbandry in that very Verse For we are Labourers together with God and ye Gods Husbandry Not his field only nor his Vâ—neyard only but his very Husbandry his business his imployment his ground ready tilled about the which he hath bestowed so much care and travel And being so it is expected at your hands that you bring forth the fruits of good living that you be answerable to the vote and expectation of the heavenly Husband-man The Lord hath pretermitted neither cost nor pains to make his field exceeding fruitful of good works for he hath fatned it with the blood of his only Sonne and with the blood of many and most glorious Martyrs Luxuriat sacro Sanguine pinguis humus He hath manured it with the hands of his holy Prophets which hath been since the World began watred it with the dew of Heaven and sowed it with the Seed of his holy Word What could he do more to it that he hath not done It after all this care and cost instead of Grapes you bring forth nothing but wild grapes if when he sowes amongst you his most sacred seed he findes his field over-run with thorns and thistles or that it brings forth Tares when he looks for Wheat it cannot possibly be said that God is wanting unto us but we are wanting unto God Nor can it be replyed were a man minded to dispute with Almighty God that every man is as the Lord hath made him and that the fault is rather in the seed then in the soyle For whatsoever God created he looked upon it and behold it was good and whatsoever seed he soweth let us look upon it and we shall finde it good also Gods Kingdom is here likened unto that man not which sowed every sort of seed but the good seed only the next particular and next in order to be handled Necesse est sumptum facere qui quaerit lucrum He that intends to reap must sowe It is not now as once in the golden Age when as the Earth brought forth its fruit without seed or ploughing Mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferâ—bat as the Poet hath it And he that hopes to reap good fruit must also have a care that he sowe good seed for no man is to look for Grapes from thorns or for Figs from thistles The Husbandman in the present Parable was well experienced in this rule and did not only sowe his field but he sowed good seed Now for this seed the context tells us it was wheat the best kinde of grain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Galen call's it And the Text tells us it was good the best kind of Wheat as that of which the purest bread the bread of life was to be made whereby the Children of the Kingdom are begotten to a lively hope to an incorruptible inheritance A Protestant writer of good credit doth expound it so Semen saith he propriè exponitur verbum Dei unde enati filii regni And this with good congruity enough unto our Saviours Exposition who having said that he that soweth the good seed is the Sonne of man adds that the good seed are the Children of the Kingdom The Children of the Kingdom then there 's no doubt of that And being that Children of the Kingdom are begotten by the celestial seed of Gods holy Word the Word of God may put in also for its part and come within the compasse of the seed here mentioned Hierome indeed hath given it to us for a rule that Ubicunque Dominus exponit sermones suos cavendum est ne vel aliud nec plus velimus intelligere quà m ab eo expositum est But this I think is to be understood of such expositions as are repugnant to our Saviours and not subservient thereunto But yet to keep our selves more neer unto our Saviours Exposition the Children of the Kingdom here and the Children of the wicked one in the following words are not to be interpreted of the men themselves For being it is said that the enemy sowed tares and that the tares are the children of the wicked one it might then follow thereupon that wicked men quà men are the Devils children seeds of his sowing and people of his own creating And that might serve to usher in the damnable impiety of the Manichees who had devised two several Gods the one good the other evil the one the maker of good men the other the creator of wicked men as St. Austin hath informed us of them When it is said the good seed are the Children of the Kingdom it may be further understood as of the men themselves adopted to eternal life of those sanctified thoughts of those celestial gifts and Graces by which a man is made a Child of the most high God Quaecunque sunt in hominis animo bona condita sunt à Verbo quod in principio erat apud Deum as it is in Origen Whatever God soweth in the heart of man is most pure and perfect for being good himself yea most infinite goodness nothing can be supposed to come from him but what is absolutely good We may conjecture of the seed by the fruit it yieldeth If that the fruit be good then the seed is such for an evill Tree bringeth not forth good fruit as our Saviour tells us and then we may be sure that it is of God But if the fruit prove evil we may easily guesse from whence it commeth both from what Sower and what Seed even from that seed of lust and disobedience which was first sowen in Adam by the Tempter and hath since proved too fruitful in all his
consider of the fruits for by their fruits as Christ hath told us we shall know them Of us it is expected that we rest not satisfied with the outward shew that we esteem not of the seed because the Husbandman is painful at his Plough continually and seemes in face as was Nathaniel in his heart an Husbandman that had no guile Of us it is expected that we sift the grain to see if it be Wheat indeed or at best but tares This we shall easily discern if we reflect a little upon the nature of these tares and take a just view of the same both in the seminary and the seed zizania in medio tritici tares among the wheat my next Couplet Naturale est odisse quem laeseris It is a natural vice in man having once wronged another to resolve to hate him and being once resolved to hate him to seek occasions how to wrong him A vice derived originally from the Devil in whom my Author first observed it drawn into practise by them only whom the old enemy of God hath instructed in it for he by his aspiring sins having displeased his Lord and Maker conceived so deep an hate against him that now it is not possible he should desist from doing the effects of spight and fury In the expressing of which hate and fury he deales with God as Sampson with the Philistins when he could hurt him no way else he destroyes his Harvest So much the Text affirms for certain sevit zizania in medio tritici that he sowed tares among the Wheat And of the tares themselves what they should be and how the place must be expounded it resolves so clearly that if we will we may with ease compose that difference of opinion which seemes to be betwixt the Fathers Clemens of Alexander Origen Eusebius Athanasius St. Hierome and Theophylact conceive by tares the Devils Doctrine haereses mala dogmata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dogmata haereticorum Beda will have them to be generally vices faeditates vitiorum not to descend to later writers And on the other side St. Basil Chrysostome and Euthymius interpret it of Hereticks of the men themselves St. Austin makes a question whether the Schismatick should not be added to the other and leave it in a manner with a potest dubitari as a matter doubtful St. Cyprian conceives it generally of the wicked men and Justin Martyr seemes to me to lean more that way then the other And unto these these Fathers that do so expound it our Saviours glosse upon the Text gives most advantage who tells us that the Tares are the Children of the wicked one i. e. of the Devil To reconcile which difference or rather to interpret favourable of those other Fathers who seem to have departed from the letter of our Saviours Commentary we may thus resolve it that those whom first we named apply the Text as in the morall and that the others keep themselves unto the letter Or thus the tares are said to be the Children of the wicked one not properly but by a Metonymie ab effectu that is they are that seed by which the Children of the wicked one are all begotten A Protestant Writer of good note doth expound it thus Quid fecit inimicus Seminavit in agro Domini haereticam doctrinam ex eo autem semine nascuntur zizania i. e. filii nequam nor doth he stand alone herein without some to second him for Origen amongst the ancients comes up close unto him In toto mundo seminavit malus ille zizania quae sunt sermones pravi ex malitia orti mali filii Where plainly he makes wicked and malicious Sermons sermones pravos as he calls them to be these tares these children of the wicked one which must needes be because the children of the wicked one are many times begotten by them So then we draw to this atonement that we may understand these tares not only of the Hereticks and other children of the Devâ—l as in the letter but of their wicked Doctrine as in the morall yea and according to our Saviours garb of speech which was by Allegories Tropes and Parables in the true meaning of the figure Sevit zizania inimicus the enemy sowed tares And certainly the Devil could not more cunningly have express'd his malice then in this particular for in it self the tare is of a dangerous and malignant nature and in particular it is noted by the Herbalists of all times and ages lolium oculis officere that it hurts the eyes This Ovid also hath observed in his book de Fastis Et careant loliis oculos vittantibus agri as his words there run An observation so exact that lolio victitare to feed on tares was grown into a common Proverb applyed to those which were dim-sighted It is an excellent note of Aristotle that as the eye is to the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so the minde or understanding is to the soul it is that part thereof which doth illuminate and direct the rest the will and the affections and if that eye be single the whole body will be full of light but if we feed upon these tares tares of the Devils sowing and doctrines of the Devils raising how great a darkness will invade us what a perpetual night confound us For if the light be darkness ipsae tenebrae quantae how great then is that darkness saith Christ our Saviour shall we not then be like the Citizens of Sodom blind upon the sudden enquiring for the Sun at noone wearying our selves to finde that door that is shut against us or rather shall not that great misery befall us which we finde mentioned in this Chapter that seeing we shall see but shall not perceive Error and Heresie and Schisme how plausible soever they may seem in the outward shew are but unkind and treacherous guests We may compare them to those sparrowes in the Book of Tâ—bit which roosted in his walls and made their nests within his Courts but when he took his rest and did least expect it they muted warm dung in his eyes and a grosse whitenesse came upon them that he could not see nor knew his Doctors how to help him They are blinde leaders of the blinde saith Christ our Saviout i. e. as Lyra glosseth on it exaecant alios errore suo they make the people blind with errors There is another dangerous quality in the tare as great as this for being mixt in bread it procureth giddiness Aera saith Plinie cùm est in pane celerrimè vertigines facit Rovillius a late Herbalist observes that it is intoxicating also et temulentiam vini modo excitare and that it makes men drunk as it were with Wine So farre avowed by Theophrastus that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sluggish and dull and breedes Diseases in the head the capitall and
chief fortresse of the Isle of man which once surprized with ache and giddiness and distemper how easie will it be to subdue the rest Thus is it also with false Factions and Schismatical Doctrines if mingled with the bread of Life The Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how excellent is it in it self how sweet a nourishment unto life eternal But if the tares of Heresie and Schisme be mingled with it then it becomes as the wise man calls it panis impietatis bread of wickedness panis mendacii bread of lies and panis mendax bread of falshood Such as do eat thereof however it may please the palat will finde it gravel in their mouthes and bitterness within the stomach and giddiness within the head The Cup of the New Testament how pleasant is it in it self how powerful to the remission of our sins yet if the juyce of these foule tares be mingled in it then is it vinum iniquitatis the wine of wickedness and vinum prostitutionis the wine of fornication as the Prophet calls it such as do drink thereof how drunken will they be with the Cup of abomination and filthiness the wine of the wrath of God poured out in the Cup of his indignation We note it of this kind of men with what a giddiness they are possessed in all their wayes how strangely they are madded on their own dear fancies and as it were besotted with the folly of their own inventions The Lord hath mingled spiritum vertiginis the spirit of giddiness and perverseness in the midst of Egypt and made them erre in every work thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit Galen relates in his first Book de facultate alimoniae how once the year being unseasonable and intemperate there sprung up an exceeding quantity of tares among the wheat the store of wheat in the mean time was very small and therefore neither the Husbandmen nor Bakers did sift it as they ought to do with skreenes and triers for that purpose but sold the wheat and tares together hereupon many of the people began to be diseased and ill affected in their heads but at the comming on of Summer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they brake out all of them into boyles and botches On this the wise Physitian gives this Caveat that we do carefully pick out these tares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are and part them from our heaps of Corn lest else we also fall into the same distempers and inconveniences Do we not note it also thus in the condition of false schismatical and factious Doctrines and the progress of them The enemy hath been diligent there is no doubt of that in sowing tares amongst the wheat and many of his Baylâ—ffs careless in the sifting of them because their store of wheat is small and are not some of them which are as were those Bakers of whom Galen speaks the makers the dividers of this bread unto the people either on negligence or set purpose guilty alike of this Imposture That such there are fraudulent and deceitful Bakers of the bread of life is more then certain the destiny of Pharaohs Baker be upon them for what can follow hereupon but strange distempers in the head and foul diseases in the body fallings away from God breach of the common bond of peace and in the end perhaps totall Apostasies from the faith and Gospel And then what next but that in the Apostles Language as they did not like to acknowledge God so doth God give them over to a reprobate minde to do those things which are not convenient If Nicolas the Deacon fall away from the holy truth and overthrow the faith of some no question but that he or his will also do those things which the Lord hateth and Simon Magus if he have once the Gall of bitterness within what else can be expected from him but a promiscuous and lawless liberty indifferenter utendi foeminis which came in fine to be his Doctrine The Shipwreck of the faith is commonly attended by as great a Shipwreck of the Conscience however for the most part notably dissembled for remedy whereof we will apply the counsel and advice of Galen in our Saviours Language Take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadduces or in the phrase of the Apostles Purge therefore out the old leaven the leaven of wickedness and malice and let us keep the feasts of God with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth But yet the Devil stayed not here the Devil as in malice he is inimicus a malignant enemy so in his cunning he is serpens as wise and subtile as a Serpent therefore he did not only sowe his tares in agro Domini in the Lords field but even in medio tritici in the middle of the wheat it self and in that act play'd both his prizes for it is generally noted of the tare that it is frugum pestis the very bane and plague of all other grain and for that reason called by Virgil infelix lolium nor doth the name thereof in the Greek Originalls assure us of a better Omen for the zizanion of my Text is in the grand Etymologicon so called quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it growes up with the wheat and at last destroyes it And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which name the two great Doctors Galen and Theophrastus have given it to us in the same work is said to be derived by a Metathesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to vitiate or to corrupt the tares corrupting the good seed by being mixed and made up with it into bread as I have told you out of Galen but that which is the greatest danger is that if not looked to in time the wheat may chance to be destroyed and all the field run over and pestred with them for Pliny tells us of a certain triticum circumligando enâ—care that winding round about the wheat at the last it kills it or if not so as he delivers yet it devoures it in the end by growing up with it and overspreading all the field in the which it groweth as Theophrastus rather thinketh And have we not observed it thus in Heresie false Doctrine Schisme Hath not St. Chrysostom observed that Satan did forbeare his tares when there was nothing to be hurt and that he sowed them when the wheat had taken root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so he might destroy the hopes and whole endeavours of the heavenly Husbandman And hath not Lyra noted well that therefore did the enemy sowe his tares even in the middle of the wheat ad ipsius destructionem only of purpose to destroy it destroy it how either by winding round about it or over-running all the field in which it is By winding round about it first as doth the Ivie with the Oak till it hath sucked out all
been quite wanting to his Church The Arians grown so insolent that they made open profession of their Heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had been authorized and licensed to it The Macedonians so presumptuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that they were formed into a Church and had a titulary Bishop of their own Sect. The Apollinarians held theâ—r Conventicles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as much safety and esteem as the Orthodox Christians And for Eunomius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bosom-mischief of those times he thought so poorly of a general connivence that at last nothing would content him but to have all men else to be his Disciples Of all which scandalls and disorders the said Nectarius then being Patriarch of Constantinople the greatest Prelate of the East is there affirmed to be the cause A man as the Historian saith of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an exceeding faire and plausible demeanor and very gracious with the people one that chose rather as it seemes to give free way to all mens fancies and suffer every mans proceedings then draw upon himself the envy of a stubborn Clergy and a factious multitude A pregnant evidence that possibly there cannot be a greater mischief in a Christian Church then a popular Prelate If so if by the negligence connivence of one man alone so great a spoil was made in the Church of God how busie think we was the enemy in sowing tares when as this negligence was epidemical and in a manner universal over the people The second kind of sleep which did invade the Church of God was the sleep of ignorance a sleep of such a generall latitude that neither Priest nor people were able to hold up or to look abroad The Priests lips destitute of knowledge the people so regardless that they did not seek it both so defective in their duties that at the last the Priest like those in Irenaeus veritatis ignorantiam cognitionem vocant taught that the safest knowledge was to know nothing and as they preached even so the people did believe if not tell me who can what was become of the gift of tongues is it not noted to our hands Quòd Graecè nosse suspectum foret Hebraicè propè haereticum that it was Heresie almost to be seen in Hebrew and a misprision of Heresie to be skilled in Greek And for the Latine the Books still extant of those times will inform us easily that there was nothing left of it no not the words Or of the Arts doth not Sabellicus complain how totally they were forgotten in the middle Ages Quanta bonarum artium per id tempus oblivio invaluerit Or of the Lawes do we not read how they were buried in a manner with the great Emperour their Collector till in the latter dayes Lotharius Emperour of Germany found an old Copy of them at Amalphi in the Realm of Naples Or of the Scriptures was not the Book sealed up for many Ages and had not worldly policy so farre prevailed above true piety that it was made unlawful if not capitall to look into it Nor was this ignorance only in the people but as the Prophet said in another case Aâ— is the people such was the Priest and as the Priest was such were the people nay even the Cardinal complaineth of an infelix seculum an unhappy age in which was neither famous Scholar nor Pope that cared much how Religion went which being so Divinity it self and all the Arts and helps unto it layed to so long and dead a sleep no question but the enemy was exceeding diligent both in the ripening of his old tares and in sowing new There is a kinde of sleep yet left as hurtful â—o the Church as the other two the sleep of sensuality and of immoderate ease and pleasures a sleep like that described in the sixth of Amos They lie saith he upon benches of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches they carouse wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chief oyntments Did not the Prophet think you reflect a little on the last Ages of the Church or may not his description with good reason be applyed unto them if not why did St. Bernard in a pious anger upbraid the Clergy of those times with their Stage-like gestures their meretricious neatness their pompous habits and retinue Incedunt nitidi ornati circumamicti varietatibus more like saith he unto a spruce and Court-like Bridegroom then the severe Guardians of the Spouse of Christ Could it be thought that men so neat and complete as those drowned in effeminacy and ease and surfeited with too much fullnesse would leave the pleasures of the world to minde the business of the Church or shake away their pleasant slumbers to entertain so sowre a Mistress as the perplexities of learning and the severities of Discipline Nunquam putabam fore I never thought said Cicero that such a curious youth as Caesar one that so smoothly comb'd his hair and rnbbed his head with his fore-finger would either have the happiness or the heart to vanquish Pompey Though Tully was deceived in the event of that great action yet his conjecture had good grounds And we may well apply it to them that sure such men as in those dayes had the sole managing of the Church when as these tares were sowen and had brought forth fruit were never like to crosse the enemy in that purpose or disappoint him of his hopes or overcome him at the last in the main encounter not that the Priests and Prelates were all such without exception for the worst times have brought forth brave and vertuous men and such as stand upon record for their eminent piety but that they were thus for the most part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus have I shewn unto you three several kindes of sleep which had not only seized the people but also had surprized the Watchmen and made blinde the seers and laid up the Guardians and hard it is to say which of the three gave most increase to the Devils Harvest The Pastors careless of their duties aimed at this especially that they themselves might live in peace and die if possible in the generall love and good opinion of their people Here were the tares first sowen and neither noted in the seed nor in the blade for either the opinion taken up was but the fancy of some few eminent like enough in point of learning or some such innovation in the Churches orders as seemed not in it self to violate the sacred truth or threaten any present danger to the common quiet And then what was it but a vain and faulty curiosity either to quarrel with a man so much renowned in point of knowledge or to enquire into their meaning and intentions who loved the Lord too well to disturb his Church By which connivence this plausible and popular beheaviour of the Watchmen the enemy first entred upon Gods
inheritance and having sowen his tares departed went away in good assurance of success Afterwards when this negligence was lulled into an ignorance the tares were grown into a stalk and began to sprout but who was able to discern them Bellarmine counts it an especial happiness in those dayes of darkness ut nullae novae surgerent haereses that there arose not in the Church any upstart Heresie And why so great an happiness but because that wretched Age neither afforded learned Scholar to confute them nor publick Councel to condemn them How much more happy had it been had not those seeds of error which were sowen before then took advantage to spring up had not the darkness been so great like that of Egypt that one scarce saw another neither rose any from his seat to look unto the publick safety But in the end when as the Priest and Prelate became luxurious and wanton stretched on their beds of case and lulled asleep with too much plenty then came the tares to bring forth fruit and to appear in their own likeness yet was there then lesse hope then ever Did those that dwelt upon the Nile and were accustomed to the noise ever observe the fall and roaring of the waters Or grant we that they saw these tares and took notice of them shall we conceive that men so drowned in ease and pleasure would undertake a restitution of the ancient Discipline Was any thing more odious to the Court of Rome then the attempts that some of the more pious Popes had made of a Reformation rather like the Amyclae an Italian people they passed a Law Ne quis de hostium adventu famam spargeret that no man should presume from that time forwards to give them notice of these tares or of the neer approach of the common enemy Nay at the last this Bastards Reign shall be legitimated by the Common-Councel proclaimed to be good seed of the Lords own sowing and then what man is he that dare call them tares In which so long a night of several and distracted sleepes in what a wretched state had the Church been think we had not the Lord awakened some to have a care unto his field and to take notice of these tares Once the affaires of Rome were brought unto so low an ebbe that there was nothing of the City left them but the very Capitoll and that too in a possibility to have been surprized ni anseres Diis dormientibus vigilassent had not their Geese been better to them then their Gods Hus as my Books inform me in the Bohemian Language of which Land he was doth signifie a Goose had not this Hus this Goose and such men as he Hâ—erome of Prague Wâ—clif and Luther and the rest though men which had I grant their own several errors discovered by their noyse and cackling the neere approches of the enemy and so awakened all the World out of that dull security in the which it was how easie had it been for Satan to have gained the Capitoll yea to have rooted all the Wheat out of the field of our Redeemer But at the last the World awakened and being throughly awakened some discerned those tares which had so long been sowen by this subtile enemy and having once discerned them took a speedy order in many places of Gods field to weed them out a thing of great offence to the Court of Rome which took it very ill to be so awakened and startled from their pleasant slumbers Marvel it is that like unto the sensual Sibarites their Italian Neighbours too they banished not all cocks the verge and territory of their Church ut mollùs viz. cubarent nulloque illorum strepitu interpellarentur for fear their sleepes should be disturbed and themselves called on to repentance For our parts as we are a parcel of this common field it cannot be denied by our greatest adversaries that from the sleep of ignorance and sensuality we have been very well awakened and we begin to be awakened also from the sleep of negligence And certainly it is high time that it should be so standing besieged as we do by two several enemies both labouring to subvert our Church and to advance their own in the ruines of it For to speak truth the present quality of our Church may with most fitness be resembled unto that of the Primitive times when both the powerful Arians and the popular Donatists were both at once in Arms against it or if we will we may compare it no lesse fitly to the State of Rome during the second Punick Warre We have the Macedonians upon all the skirts and quarters of our Empire calling to minde the Reputation of their Ancestors the great Dominion they have lost and watching all advantages to enlarge their border And there is Annibal ad portas a neerer enemy at hand at our very Gates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father called Eunomius a bosom Traytor which grindeth upon our very entrails like Prometheus vulture One side assailes openly and profess their enmity and by a signe distinctive as they please to call it give us to understand that they are but tares These like the wild Bore in the Psalms endeavour in a publick way to destroy our Vineyard Secretior Pompeius Caesare non melior The other a more close and secret enemy doth not so much assault the Church as undermine it but they aim both of them at the same mark the subjugating of the Church and the chief Soveraignty of the State and have the same end of their journey although they travel diverse wayes Is this a time think we to sleep and slumber and stretch our hands in negligence and a carelesse sloth Did ever any Mariner permit his eyes to sleep or eye-lids to slumber sailing betwixt Sylla and Charibdis Or can we think the Romans looked not then about them assailed at once by Greece and Carthage or that the primitive Christians stood not on their Guard when both the subtile Arian and Saint-seeming Donatist did oppose her Doctrine Assuredly when men are compassed round with dangers and that they have not only forraign but domestick enemies they have good reason to be watchfull Thus as we see our dangers are alike on both sides though we perhaps are not alike or equally affected in apprehension of those dangers On the one side we think there never can be watch enough that all those Lawes and Proclamations which are out against them are not sufficient to secure us and dispossess us of our feares And now that his most sacred Majesty hath given new life unto those Lawes and by his royall Edict declared his pleasure that no man shall presume hereafter to practise on his weak and unsetled subjects for the reduction of them unto the superstition of the Church of Rome we think as true indeed it is that he hath shewn his zeal to the House of God and that we cannot magnifie him as we ought to do But
And yet I would not be mistaken as if I thought there were no Heresie to be found in the Church of Rome or that their errors which they teach were neither positively dangerous in themselves nor possibly pernicious and destructive to them that hold them without true repentance That which was first an error only when first taken up in them that taught it may by an obstinate pertinacy become an Heresie in them that hold it It s true that every deviation from the truth or opposition made against it doth not denominate an Heretick nor doth the voluntary taking up of a false opinion create such mischief to the Church as the unwillingness to lay it down Were it not for pertinaciter defensa sponte electa would beare no great stroke in the definition of an Heresie This was the case between St. Cyprian and the Donatists S. Cyprian and some other holy Bishops of the African Churches conceived rebaptization to be necessary in some certain cases but modestly and with submission to the Church of God determining according to his word in Scripture The Donatists maintained the same opinion but they did it obstinately refused to hearken to the Church or to admit of any Judges but themselves to decide the controversie The error was the same in both the Doctrine false alike in both and yet the Donatists stand branded for it by the name of Hereticks whereas St. Cyprian and his Associates are accounted Catholicks Why so because of pertinaciter defensa because the Donatist maintained it with so great perverseness that there was no reclaiming of him to the sound Doctrines of the Church And this is that which Lerinensis speaks of with such admiration O mira rerum conversio Authores opinionis Catholici sectatores haeretici judicantur absolvuntur magistri condemnantur discipuli This also is the case of the Church of Rome the enemy had sowen his tares in agro domini and they sprung up in medio tritici When they were sowen they were not noted and having taken root and put forth the blade they looked so like the wheat with so fair a shew that very few if at all any did suspect them And so long these of Rome were in the same condition and estate with the African Prelates either their ignorance or inadvertency might have salv'd the sore but when the fruit discover'd them to be tares indeed and that they notwithstanding would defend and countenance them proclaim them to be wheat of the Lords own sowing sell them for such to simple people in the open markets and make them eat as one may say their own damnation then fell they into the condition of the desperate Donatist and that which was an error only in the first broachers of the Doctrine is in them made Heresie And here I may repeat that of Lirinensis Authores opinionis Catholici sectatores haeretici They which first set on foot the opinion whatsoever they were might have no ill intention in it conceiving that which they delivered not to be contrary to the Churches tendries though perhaps besides them And so it might be with them also which took them upon trust and assented to them not having meanes or opportunity to come unto the knowledge of the truth in those particulars But so it is not with our Masters in the Church of Rome who have not only means to know them and opportunity to consider of the fruit they bear but having been informed of that long mistake in which their Predecessors lived and of the dangers which those tares do threaten to the Church of God do obstinately shut their eyes against the sacred light of truth and will not see the beames thereof shine they never so brightly In which estate if they continue wilful without true repentance let them take heed lest that befall them which my Authour speaks of Absolvuntur magistri condemnantur discipuli and so I leave them to Gods mercy with them the first point of this Discourse viz. the kind or nature of the Doctr. which are here intended proceeding hence unto the 2d the difficulty to discern them in the seed or blade until they came to bring forth fruit to fecissent fructum Nil magis curant quà m occultare quod praedicant Tertullian notes it of the Valentinians that they did use to hide their tenets and conceal their Doctrines A Lesson taught them by their sire the Devil who when he had a purpose to destroy Gods Harvest not only did it at a time when the servants slept and in so quick a manner that he was not noted but sowed Gods field with such a seed as could not easily be discerned from the wheat it self until the very fruits proclaimed it In all his other projects to subvert the Gospel the Watchmen of the Church so traced him and kept so vigilant an eye upon him that all his machinations were detected and his hopes made frustrate he is resolved to cheat the very Watchmen and therefore sets on foot such Doctrines in which was no apparent danger and much lesse any visible impiety that whilest the Watchmen let them passe neither examining from whence they came nor to what they tended he might by them effect his purpose with the greater safety and by degrees endanger and subvert Religion And certainly it is no marvel that they should passe without discovery and prevail so farre considering how closely the design was carried how little noyse it made abroad and by what leisure and degrees it did gather strength For howsoever it be true which the Cardinall tells us that in omni insigni mutatione religionis in every notable change and alteration of Religion a man may easily discern both the change it self and all the circumstances that pertain unto it yet in the sowing of these tares it was not so We neither know the Authors time or place by whom when where the said false tenets were first broached nor finde we any that opposed them at their rising up or whether any did take notice of them when the blade sprung up And yet it is most manifest that such tares there were and that they had almost corrupted and destroyed the wheat before the servants had espied them The Cardinalls Rule holds good in all sudden changes which are made publickly and professedly and all at once in publick and notorious Heresies which come in with violence and aim at the foundation of the House of God And any man of common reading can tell as well as he when and by whom and where the Macedonian Arian Valentinian Heresies or any of the rest of so high a nature did at first begin but between those and these in the body mystical the difference is as great and signall as between open Arms and Clandestine conspiracy in the body politique whereof that may be easily discerned this not or an outragious burning Feaver and a dull Consumption in the body naturall of which that comes with fury this
vizards even whilest he was about this deed of darkness By them a question is demanded of poor ignorant servants who either weary of their labour or inclined to ease or careless of their Masters business had been fast asleep and knew not what was done till they were well wakened If they must needs be further satisfied in these curious cavills let them repair to their own Master and enquire of him who being conscious to himself of his own lewd acts can give them a more punctuall answer We are no servants of the enemy nor ever were imployed in sins dark designs and therefore unacquainted with his plots and counsels To us according to this Parable the asking of the question appertains not to the answer of it But put the case the worst that may be and let it passe for granted that our adversaries may pervert and change the question as they list themselves yet why should we return them any other Answer then the Lord made unto his servants Why may not we make this reply to all their Queries inimicus homo hoc fecit that the enemy did it The Lord out of his infinite wisdom thought it not improper to give a general answer to a particular demand And why should we be wiser then our Master The servants ask in special unde haec zizania the Lord returns in generall inimicus fecit But as for the particulars of time place and persons wherewith our Adversaries presse and charge us against right and reason those he reserves unto himself and conceales from us And 't is a learned ignorance not to know those things which God endeavours to keep secret Ea nescire quae magister optimus non vult docere erudita est inscitia as mine Authour hath it Some things the Lord reserves to the day of judgement when all hearts shall be open all desires made known and no secrets hid And then we shall be sure to know what times the enemy made choyce of to sowe his tares what instruments he used in the doing of it what place or Country he selected for their first appearance with all the other curious circumstances which are so much insisted on by the common Adversary If this suffice not we must finally return that Answer which once Arnobius made to some foolish questions propounded by the enemies of the Christian faith Nec si nequivero causas vobis exponere cur aliquid fiat illo vel illo modo sequitur ut infecta sint quae jam facta sunt In case we are not able to declare unto them when by what persons in what Countries the Doctrines by us questioned were first set on foot it followeth not that therefore none of them are tares of the enemies sowing I have no more to say for the Explication most of the points having bin treated of before in our former discourses on this Argument And for the Application I must give you notice that it relates not to the matter only at this time delivered but to the whole intent and purpose of the present Parable I have already layed before you those tares and errors which have been noted and observed in the Church of Rome Our own turn is next and it comes in agreeably to the Text it self in which it is supposed as granted that there was good feed sowen by the Heavenly Husbandman however afterwards the field became full of tares According unto which Proposall I shall first shew you in the Thesis what speciall care was taken in our Reformation that all things might be fitted to the word of God and the best ages of the Church Next I shall make a true discovery of those several tares wherewith this Field is over-grown and Gods seed indangered So doing I am sure I shall not be accused of partiality or respect of persons And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 encouraged by your Christian patience let us on in Gods name Si de interpretatione legis quaeritur inspiciendum est inprimis quo jure civitas retro in ejusmodi casibus usa suit It is a Maxime in the Lawes that if a question do arise about the sense and meaning of some Law or Statute the best way is to have recourse to the decisions of the State in the self-same case An Axiome no lesse profitable in Divinity then it is in Law The State Ecclesiastical hath her doubts and changes as great and frequent as the civill the body mystical as subject to corruptions as the body politick In which condition either of distractions or of distempers no better way to set her right to bring her to her perfect constitution then to look back upon her primitive and ancient principles Ad legem testimonium was the rule of old And this the Church of Christ hath thought fit to follow when she hath found her self diseased with plain and manifest corruptions or otherwise distracted with debates and doubtful disputations as St. Paul calls them The Law of God the Gospel of our Saviour Christ for points of Doctrine the usage and testimony of the primitive Church for points of practice hath alwayes been her rule and Canon in such desperate plunges In the observance of which rule as generally the Church of God hath discharged her duty as may appear by the inspection of her ancient Coâ—ncels and other Monuments and Records of her acts and doings so aut me amor suscepti negotii fallit either I erre through too much filiall piety to the Church my Mother or else there never was a National Church in what Age soever that hath more punctually observed this rule then this Church of England For in that great business of the Reformation those Worthies here whom God had raised and fitted for the undertaking were not possessed for ought we finde with any spirit of contradiction or humour of affecting contrarieties That which they found before established which either was agreeable to the word of God in point of Doctrine or to the usage of the primitive Church in point of order and devotion they retained as formerly so farre endeavouring a conformity with the Church of Rome that where she left not Christ and the Primitive Church there they left not her Luther and Calvin however honoured and admired in the World abroad were here no otherwise considered then as learned men whose works and writings possibly might be counted useful but not thought Authentick Our Prelates here that were engaged in this great business Cranmer and Ridley and the rest of these brave Heroes were of as able parts as they but more moderate spirits They knew the Church had first been founded upon the Prophets and Apostles our Saviour Christ being the Corner-stone and therefore would not build their reformation on the names of men Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus cognomen was Pacianus's Speech of old but they made it theirs and still we keep it as our own But what need more The fair succession of the
Pards and Lyons creatures that never sucked the milk of Women Certain I am as most Interpreters agree that by the name of Lyon in the 2d of Tim. St. Paul designes the Emperor Nero I was delivered saith the Apostle out of the mouth of the Lyon Ex ore leonis i. e. persecutoris saith St. Hierome i. e. Neronis saith Lyranus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith St. Chrysostome with whom accord Theophylact and Oecumenius And when he laboured to envenom it by scandalous and noysom Hereticks he made use of Serpents that by the poyson of their impious Doctrine she might be brought unto destruction Certain I am that Epiphanius resembleth every severall Hereticks unto some speciall sort of Serpent But in the sowing of these tares in bringing in that deviation from the true Religion which is intended in this Parable he then thought it his best way to make use of men men who knew how to time it and to watch advantages and to make use of all occasions and so with more assurance might effect his purpose because leasâ— suspected The Devill never went beyond himself but in this invention in putting on the shape of man when he did this feat that he might passe unseen by the houshold-servants This is the true cause as I conceive it why Satan is here called inimicus homo the envious and malicious man or if you will the enemy-man as the Rhemists read it What kinde of men the enemy made use of to effect his purpose and how he makes the lusts and passions of his several instruments subservient to his wretched purposes we shall see in the hoc fecit my last particular Aetatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores He that desires to be esteemed a Master in the Art of man must be well skilled in all the humors and affections which are peculiar to his nature and incident unto his age Nay he must be well read in mens wants and weaknesses their imperfections and defects which if applied with cunning and employed with care may prove exceeding serviceable to the aims and projects of the cunning practiser And as the thrifty man that desires to prosper turns every thing unto his profit and makes no small commodity out of toyes and trifles so he that trades in men and hath the art of diving into their affections may husband and improve the meanest passion to his great advantage The Devil the old enemy is a cunning man a subtle practiser and is not now to learn this lesson When he was once resolved on the fecit hoc to sowe his tares his dangerous and hereticall Doctrines in the Church of God he was not to be taught how to deal with men how to make use of their affections of their lusts and passions for the promoting of his purpose or how to use their weaknesse and deficiencies as an help unto it Whether men be voluptuous arrogant or vain-glorious whether they pine with envy or are stirred with choler or be they rash or head-strong t is all one to him He knowes full well his opportunities how to apply himself unto them as the humour takes and by their meanes to do that businesse which he durst never undertake without them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not that the Devil hath a power as the Father notes it to thrust men into his employments whether they will or not but that he makes such use of their lusts and passions as may best suit with his intendments The enemy in this business deales by craft not force And first if we begin with the ambitious man as certainly he would take it ill if we should do otherwise how much hath Satan wrought upon this affection from the beginning of the world What was it but ambition in our Father Adam when he desired to be as God knowing good and evill And did not Satan work upon that humour to the undoing of that wretched upstart and his whole posterity What was it but ambition in Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-begotten of the Devil as Ignatius calls him which made him love to be entituled the great power of God And did not Satan work upon that humour for the promoting and divulging of those desperate blasphemies with which the Church was long tormented What was it but ambition in the Popes that moved them to affect the Title of Universall Bishop in the Church of Christ And hath not Satan wrought upon that humour to the distraction of the Church if not the totall ruine of it This Doctrine of the Cardinall Si Papa doceret virtutes esse vitia c. that if the Pope determine vertue to be vice all men are to believe so without more ado that of Aquinas and the Schools that he may make new Articles of faith which Pius Quartus put in practise that of the Canonists in generall that as the Vicar-generall of our Saviour Christ he is Lord of all and consequently hath a power to do what he list as also to dispense what and how he list in matters which concern the Church with Oaths and Vowes and Leagues and Mariages yea with the very Law of nature these and the rest what are they but the fruits of the Popes supremacy and what produced the Popes supremacy but the Popes ambition I fear a spice of this ambition and a shrewd one too is still left amongst us in them most visible who would be every one a Pope in their severall Parishes The Fathers of the Consistory claim as great Authority as ever Pope did in the Conclave and at their feet according to their own dear principles the Pâ—inces of the Earth must lay down their Scepters Huic disciplinae omnes orbis principes fasces suos submittere parere necesse est as Travers hath resolved it in his Book of Discipline Vain-glory may come next ambition and many times they go together This was the motive that incited Theudas to take upon himself the name of some doughty Prophet that he might draw away much people after him and be counted somebody This Austin notes to be the fountain of all Heresies Superbia mater heresâ—on as the Father hath it St. Bernard speaks it out more fully captare gloriam de singularitate scientiae to get himself a name for a man of eminency Somewhat they needs must teach which is not ordinary to gain themselves opinion and increase their followers St. Dominick St. Francis and all the rest which have so surfeited the Church with their several Orders what aimed they at in all their institutions but the vain-glory of a new Invention and to have their followers called by their own names So fared it also with the Schoolmen Lombard Aquinas Bonaventure and the rest that followed every one superadding some new niceties unto those before them Those intricate debates first raised amongst them touching Predestination Grace Free-will the Merit of good works as well
SERMON I. At CHRIST-CHURCH Septemb. 26. 1643. MATTH 13. v. 28. part ult Vis imus colligimus ea The Servants said unto him Wilt thou that we go and gather them up TAm vari se gessit ut nec laudaturum magna nec vituperaturum mediocris materia deficeret It is affirmed by the Historian of Caius Caesar how he behaved himself in such different manner that there wanted not forcible reasons to condemn yet excuse sufficient to commend him The like may we affirm of our Servants here he that doth look upon them in their sleep and negligence and findes them ut dormirent homines cannot but think them accessary to so great a mischief as Satan brought upon the Church in sowing Tares The opportunity they gave him by their dull security or at the least their supine carelesness makes them parcel-guilty And he that undertakes to defend them in it will questionless as much betray his Client as they their Cause But look upon them when they were awakened when they had seen their own error and the Churches danger and then how many things are there worthy at once of our applause and imitation In servis habemus tam quod laudemus quà m quod imitemur as my Author hath it First their fidelity quòd accesserunt in that they came unto their Master made him acquainted with the accident and so prepared him for the Remedy Their coming was an Argument of their good intentions and that they had not willingly betrayed the trust reposed in them they did not fly on the discovery And next we have their care quòd quaesierunt that they could never be at quiet till they were satisfied in the Original and Instrument of so great a mischief till they had learnt the unde whence the tares should come And when their Master had informed them in the fecit hoc and told them that the Enemy had done it yet they stayed not here as if the question had been made out of curiosity more to inform their understandings then reform the matter They thought it did concern them to redeem the time because their former fact was evill And as the enemy had entred by their sloth and negligence and thereby took occasion to destroy Gods Harvest so they conceived it did belong to them especially to labour in the Reformation and to reduce Gods Field to its primitive lustre by their zeal and courage This was the thing most aimed at in the Accescerunt this the chief reason of their coming No sooner had they heard that the enemy did it and that this enemy was the Devil Diaboli calliditate factum esse as it is in Lyra but presently they make an offer of their service to redress the mischief and by their joynt endeavours to root out those â—ares by which Gods Field was so indangered The servants said unto him Vis imus colligimus ea Wilt thou that we go and gather them up This is the last part which the Servants have to act in this present Dialogue and in this part they give a fair expression of their zeal and wisdom He that will take their Picture right shall finde that it consisteth of these five Lineaments For first we have a noble courage vis imus Sir Wilt thou that we go and give the onset T is not the Devil whom we fear nor any of his wretched Instruments how great soever they may be both in power and malice Vis imus Say but the word only and thy servants go And next we finde an honest zeal to rectifie what was amisse in the Field of God Vis imus colligimus ea Is it your pleasure that those Tares shall be rooted up T is not the Tares we are in love with how fair soever to the eye how plausible soever they may seem in the opinion and esteem of seduced people Say thou but faciat is hoc and thy servants will do it In each we have their readiness and unanimity First imus colligimus we go and gather in the plural number then imus colligimus we go and gather in the present tense and last of all we have their temper and obedience guiding their counsels by their Masters will and governing their zeal by his direction Vis imus colligimus ea This we are ready to perform if you please to have it so if otherwise we neither are so in love with danger nor so ambitious of imployment as not to take your Warrant and Commission with us for our justification And therefore fiat voluntas tua not our will but thy will be done Vis imus colligimus ea Wilt thou that we go and gather them up These are the features which I am to draw though I confess with an ignorant and unskilful pencil leaving them to be better limmed and polished by your more seasonable meditations And first I am to lay before you their heroick courage vis imus wilt thou that we go Scientia parum est nisi accedat virtus Knowledge is little worth when it comes alone when it is neither joyned nor seconded with vertuous purposes Some desire knowledge only that they may be known and this is vanity some only for the thing it self to know and this is curiosity others that they may edifie therewith and this is charity This last kinde was the desire of knowledge which these servants brought when they repaired unto their Master with an unde haec They only laboured to discern whence the Tares should come that so they might bethink themselves of some present Remedy And having found out what they sought for a man would easily have thought they had found enough to save them any further trouble To tell them that the enemy was abroad and that by his false Arts and Practises he had sowen those Tares might well have been a Supersedeas to all further care for who would willingly provoke an enemy especially in matters which concern the publick when by declining of the business quitting an employment of such dangerous nature he may preserve himself both in peace and quietness But when this Enemy is discovered further to be an enemy of no common rank but even the very Prince of darkness qui tot Legionibus imperitat one that commands so many Legions I trow it were no part of wisdom to incur his anger when by a plausible and discreet connivence we may hold fair with him To go against an enemy of such power and quality were a desperate madness such as no man of ordinary brains would be guilty of when he may safely sit at home and take such fortune as the success and issue of affaires should offer yet such was the undaunted courage of the servants here that none of all these cautions or considerations could preponderate with them or hinder them from venturing in their Masters cause vis imus Wilt thou that we go And 't was no mean note of a noble
edge on the temporal Sword though even in these it be a remedy to be last applied and more to be commended where it may not then where it may possibly be spared In other cases where the error lieth in the understanding although most commonly backed with obstinacy and perverseness in the will and affections the adverse parties in the Church have been too farre transported beyond their bounds and drawn too much blood from one another though both pretend the Lawes for their justification For who seeth not how little it doth savour of the spirit of Christ to hale young boyes and silly women and poor ignorant Tradesmen to the Funeral-Pile because they could not fathom the deep Mystery of transubstantiation or thought it not an acceptable sacrifice to devoure their God or found not Purgatory in the Scriptures or did not think it fit to invocate the Saints their Brethren when as the way lay open unto God their Father or durst not give that honour to a painted Crucifix which properly belonged to their crucified Saviour And on the other side it wants not reprehension amongst moderate men that Christians should be dragged unto the Scaffold for no other reason then taking sacred Orders from a forreign hand or treading on prohibited ground not being otherwise convicted by sufficient evidence either of practising against the State or labouring to seduce the Subjects from their natural duties The Christians of the Primitive Ages had lost the most effectual part of their Apologies if difference in Religion only had been a crime sufficient without further guilt to draw those fiery storms upon them under which they suffered And though I say not of these Lawes to which each parties do pretend for their justification that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto Draco's Lawes of old which were written in blood yet one might say and say it without just offence that they were neither made nor executed within these Dominions but either when the Dragon was a chief Supporter of the Arms Imperiall or else on those unfortunate wretches who have since fallen in regionem Draconum into the place of Dragons as the Psalmist calls it Certain it is that by those bloody executions both sides have rather been confirmed then weakned and both have given advantage to the growth of Heresies Just as Sulpitius hath observed that by the execution of Priscillian which before I spoke of non tantùm non repressa est ejus haeresis sed propagata his Heresie was so farre from being suppressed that it grew the faster for the cutting Christs Sinite stands not here for nothing but shewes that till the time of the general Harvest there will be tares amongst the Wheat do we what we can Which leads me to my last particular to the condition of the Church here militant delivered in the Simul crescere in that the tares and Wheat are ordered to grow up together Of which and of the reasons of that intermixture I shall crave leave to insist a little and so commend you unto God Perplexae sunt istae duae Civitates in hoc seculo invicemque permistae It was the saying of St. Austin that the two Cities which he was to write of the City of the Lord and the City of Satan were so intermingled that there was little hope to see them separated till the day of Judgement The same may we affirm of the Church of Christ it is of such a mixt condition compounded so proportionably of the good and evil the Heretick and true Professor that neither of the two is likely to suppress the other till God take up the controversie in the day of doom And therefore not without good reason is the Church compared to a threshing-floore on which there is both wheat and chaffe and to a Fold wherein there are both Sheep and Goats and to a casting-net which being thrown into the Sea drew up all kind of Fishes whether good or bad and to an House in which there are not only vessels of honour as of gold and silver but also of dishonour and for unclean uses and in my Parable to a field wherein besides the good seed which the Lord had sowen Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae the enemy had sowed his tares And this is thought by some of good note and learning to be the chief intention of our Saviours Parable who tells us that he meant not by the Sinite so farre to patronize the Heretick or protect the wicked as to respit either of them from the censure of the Church or State under pretence of calling them to an account at the general Audit but to set forth the true condition of the Church here militant in which the wicked person and the righteous man are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for in this present World and therefore very well said a modern Authour Docetur hic non quale sit officium nostrum aut magistratus aut Pastorum sed tantùm quae futura sit Ecclesiae conditio Christ doth not here inform the Minister or the Civil Magistrate or any private person what they are to do but onely represents unto his Disciples the true condition of his Church till the end of the World which can be never so reformed and purified but that some errors and corruptions will continue in it But whether it be so or not certain it is that such is the condition of the Church in this present World that it is subject to corruptions and never absolutely free from sin and error There is much drosse amongst her gold and although that her foundations be of precious stones yet there is wood and hay and stubble in the superstructure which are so intermingled made up together that nothing but a general fire can exactly part them I mean the fire of conflagration not of Popish Purgatory Were it not thus we need not pray for the Church militant but glory as in the triumphant And yet the Church is counted holy and called Catholick still this intermixture notwithstanding Catholick in regard of time place and persons in and by which the Gospel of our Saviour is professed and propagated Holy secundum nobiliores ejus partes in reference to the Saints departed and those who are most eminent in grace and piety And it is also called Ecclesia una one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church though part thereof be militant here upon the earth and part triumphant in the Heavens the same one Church both now and in the world to come The difference is that here it is imperfect mixt of good and bad there perfect and consisting of the righteous onely according to this determination of St. Austin eandam ipsam unam sanctam Ecclesiam nunc habere malos mixtos tunc non habituram For then and not till then as Hierome Augustine and others do expound the place shall Christ
the juyce and made it fit for nothing but the very fire Faction and error so behave themselves to the Word of God as Judas did to God the Word They are both of them cunning Traytors killing sometimes in their embraces and sometimes betraying in their kisses Or if not thus yet they destroy it at the last by over-spreading all the Church and eating out the truth of Doctrine if not tell me if in the Jewish Church the Pharisees had not almost made the Commandements of God of none effect by their traditions Tell me if in the Christian Church the tares of errour and false Doctrine had not even overgrown the Gospel if the Popes Canon and the proud dictates of the Schoolmen had not usurped into the Chair and Throne of Scripture certain I am that Frier Richard de Man 's in the Trent-Councel did publickly maintain and with good applause that all the points of faith had been so clearly handled by those Schoolmen ut ea ex Scripturis discere nil opus esset that now the word of God was no longer serviceable so truly was it Satans purpose not only by the sowing of his tares to corrupt Religion but by that cunning to supplant it And all this while what was become of those to whom the Lord had farmed his field and leased out his Vineyard My Text makes answer to this question and tells us that they were asleep wherein we have the Servants and their sluggishness my last Couplet cùm dormirent homines while men slept Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam Cities are sometimes soonest taken when the siege is raised and all the Watch-men made secure for when the enemy is neare and a Trench cast about the Walls the Watch is doubled and there are Centinels and Scouts in every corner to mark the motions of the Enemy and observe his purposes so also was it with the grand enemy of Gods Field in generall but more especially in reference to that particular part thereof which we call the Church As long as he essay'd to batter down the Bulwarks in the House of God he was more closely watched and all mens eyes were bent upon him but having lulled it once asleep drenched it in sensuality corrupted it with ease and prohibited pleasures then was his time to venture on it and to sowe his tares an opportunity well watch'd No sooner did men sleep no sooner were the servants drowsie and regardless of so great a charge but he was straight about his business no sooner did men sleep what men Lyra makes answer the Apostles what of their negligence no God forbid but of the death the last sleep and departure of those blessed spirits St. Austin and Euthymius do a little touch at this conceit and they only touch it but Egesippus with great confidence affirms it saying that after the Apostles deaths the Hereticks did then begin to lift up their heads and advance their errors mingling their tares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their false and commentitious Doctrines with the truth and Gospel This we believe indeed that then the Hereticks became more insolent and adventurous then before they were and did oppose the Gospel as he tells us there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the greater impudence but yet I am not of opinion that this should be the sleep and these the men intended in the present Scripture With how much better reason doth the Glosse expound it of a general negligence both in the Pastor and the people a negligence of private men circa custodiam suae propriae personae in the preserving and defence of their several souls a negligence of the publick Pastors circa custodiam gregis sui in the ill tending of the flock committed to them This exposition of the Glosse confirmed by Chrysostom where he informs us of a misery of no mean quality like to befall those sleepy souls to whom the Husbandman had left his field yet not the Priest or Prelate only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the people also otherwise as the Apostle said that if there were no Resurrection then were the Christians of all men most miserable so were the Priest and Prelate the most miserable of all other Christians if all mens sins were rated only on their scores and they to give up an account of every soul in their several charges It s true indeed that both Euthymius and St. Hierome understand here only magistros praeceptores ecclesiarum the teachers and overseers of the Church And so far we may yeeld unto them that it is meant of them principally and as publick Ministers which are to have a care of the common safety but so that every private man is included also in the Parable The Devil first makes his advantage of the negligence of private persons and whiles they sleep secure and careless he scattereth in their hearts the seeds of Heresie and error that so they may be able to infect their brethren The enemy never sends out any of his Foxes to destroy Gods Harvest till he put fire-brands in their tails This done he seeks occasion to employ them in the destruction of the wheat in the infection of the Church and therein also makes advantage of the security and negligence of their Superiours of their Rulers These the Lords Bayliffs as it were to whom he hath intrusted his holy Husbandry and if they sleep if once they grow remisse and careless what else can we expect but that these tares take root and outgrow the Wheat and in conclusion overcome it Now in the Church we may observe three severall kindes of sleepiness all of them in their course predominant and of ill effect the sleep of negligence the sleep of ignorance and the sleep of sensuality The first the sleep of negligence and so St. Austin doth expound it but while men slept i. e. saith he Cùm negligentiùs agerent praepositi Ecclesiae when as the Rulers of Gods House grew dull and careless of their Watch and were not mindful of their duties This the disease even of the best and purest Ages for which is there almost of the Angels of the seven Churches which is not branded with this mark during the lives of the Apostles the falling from the love of Christ the tolerating of the Nicolaitans the suffering of the Woman Jesebel to seduce Gods servants the want of piety in one zeal in another and that poor little strength of faith which was remaining in the third what were they but the sad effects of dull and negligent security in the severall Pastors But the Apostles being gone those which did oversee the overseers there followed by degrees an infectious drowsiness over all the Church still more inclining to this sleep the more they were accustomed to it The times of Nazianzen how watchful were they in respect of those succeeding yet he complains in his Epistle to Nectarius as if the providence of God had
are constant unto nothing halting as once the Israelites between two opinions divided betwixt God and Mammon in great distraction with our selves whether we shall adhere to Christ or follow Antichrist continue in old England or hoyst sail for New And for the sores upon the body the blemishes of our behaviour the stains and scandalls of our conversation by which we grieve the Spirit and disgrace Religion what are they but the frequent though most lewd effects of a perverted understanding and a poysoned will The Heresies of the Gnosticks and the Carpocratians what vile and wretched things they were A man might easily conjecture what fine points they held by the condition of their lives which were so filthy and obscene that for their sakes the name of Christian first grew odious to the sober Gentile Vide Christianos quid agunt In illis patitur lex Christiana maledictum as devout Salvian oft complained The errors of the Church of Rome in point of judgement have they not bred as grievous errors in the points of practice Whence else proceeds it that the Priests are debarred from Marriage and permitted Concubines that open Stewes are suffered and allowed of so they pay rent unto the Pope and supply his Coffers that Princes may have dispensation to forswear themselves and break those Covenants which they have solemnly contracted with their confederates that subjects may take arms against and depose their Princes if the Pope do but say the word and free them from the Oath of their Allegeance And on the other side when we behold men factiously bent to oppose the Church seditiously inclined to disturb the State disloyally resolved to resist their Soveraign rebelliously disposed to excite the people when men refuse to pay the King his lawful tributes and yet consume them on their lusts when they let loose such rogues as Barrabas that they may crucifie their Lord and Master may we not certainly affirm that they have hearkened to the Doctrines of Knox and Cartwright and their successors in the cause Such as the Doctrines are which the eare takes in such also are the lives which are framed thereafter Cavete itaque quid auditis take you heed therefore what ye hear lest whilest you lend an eare to those false Apostles you partake with them of their sins And certainly there is good reason why we should take heed The Devil never was more busied in sowing of his tares then now nor ever had he better opportunity to effect his purpose So dull and sleepy are men grown circa custodiam propriae personae suae in reference to themselves and their private safety that they are angry with the Prelates for being so vigilant and careful circa custodiam gregis sui and having more care of them then they have themselves so that if Satan be but diligent as no doubt he is and send his instruments abroad as no doubt he doth he may disperse his tares securely and bring them to fecissent fructum ere they be discovered And how comes this to passe but for want of heed for want of taking heed what it is we hear and unto whom it is we hearken False factious and schsmatical Doctrines are the seeds of Satan and many instruments he hath both in the Pulpit and the Parlor to disperse those seeds some speaking evil of Authority and despising Dignities others perverting of the people and forbidding to pay tribute unto Caesar some taking up provision of the choicest wits and persons of most power and quality for the Church of Rome and others leading out whole Families to seek the Gospel in the Desert He that doth look for better fruit from such dangerous Doctrines then discontent and murmuring against their Rulers associations and conspiracies against lawful Government and finally a flat Apostasie from the sincerity of that Religion which is here profest may as well look for Grapes from Thorns or Figs from thistles A good Tree bringeth forth good fruit but for these evil Trees which bear evil fruit what are they profitable for but for the fire that as they are the cause of combustions here they may adde fuel to the fire hereafter Thus have I brought you at the length to that which did occasion the discovery of the Devills practise The sowing of these Tares the Sevit we had seen before We have now took a brief view of them in crevisset herba and brought them to fecissent fructum There remains nothing further but apparuerunt that they appeared and how they were discovered but that must be the work of another day SERMON IV. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 27. 1638. MATTH 13. v. 26. Tunc apparuerunt Zizania Then appeared the tares also LAtet anguis in herba The Snake or Serpent doth delight to hide himself under the covert of the grasse so that we hardly can discern them till we tread upon them and treading on them unawares when we think not of it are in danger to be bitten by them when we cannot help it Et sic palleat ut nudis qui pressit calcibus anguem so is it also in the Text. Here is a Serpent in the grasse anguis in herba in the tares when they first peeped out and anguis in crevisset when the blade grew up Yet all this while the enemy was either in his latitat and so was not seen or else disguised and veiled with an alias dictus and so passed unknown And had he not been found in fecissent fructum when the fruit was ripe and men were able to discern him we might have bin worse bitten and more shrewly punished then were the Israelites in the Desert by the fiery Serpents But God was pleased to deal more mercifully with his Church then so And though it seemed good unto him for some certain space to let the enemy rejoyce and admire himself in the success of his designes yet it held not long for when his hopes were highest and his tares well grown so that they seemed to have preeminence of the wheat it self then did the Heavenly Husbandman awake his servants and let them look upon the tares in fecissent fructum when they appeared to be what indeed they were infelix solium frugum pestis and whatsoever other name the Poets and Philosophers have bestowed upon them But when the blade sprung up and had brought forth fruit tunc apparuerunt zizania then appeared the tares also The words you see are very few and so the parts not like to be very many We will observe only these two particulars 1. That the tares appeared at last apparuerunt zizania when or how they were discovered and that we finde in the word tunc then when the blade had brought forth fruit Of these in order begining what the Quod sit first and so proceeding to the Quando Veritas non quaerit angulos Truth seeks no corners saith the Proverb And therefore Christ our Saviour hath compared it unto a Candle set upon an
and therefore here I will conclude SERMON V. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 12. 1639. MATTH 13. v. 27. So the Servants of the Housholder came and said unto him Sir didst not thou sowe good Seed in thy Field from whence then hath it tares PRimus felicitatis gradus est non peccare c. The first degree of happiness is not to sin The second to be sensible of a fault committed It had been well done of the servants in the present Parable to have been careful in their Masters business and not have given the enemy advantage by their dull security for the dispersing of his tares And it was well done although not so well that they discerned them in good time before they had destroyed Gods Harvest and devoured his Wheat A fault had been committed by their sloth and drowsiness that they saw too well but every man was willing to excuse himself and cast the blame upon his fellow Proprium est humano ingenio omnia sibi remittere nihil aliis said Velleius rightly And tares they saw sprung up which they had not sowen but how they came there that they could not tell certain they were that they had sowen good seed in their Masters Field and that the Field was well manured and fitted for so great a blessing To see this Field so dressed and cultivated overgrown with tares and to be ignorant withall what malicious hand had plotted and performed so great a mischief must needs produce both wonder and amazement in their doubtful mindes therefore as well to satisfie their Master that they had sowen good seed in his blessed Field according unto his appointment and to be satisfied themselves whence those tares should come they came unto the Housholder and said unto him Domine nonne seminasti bonum semen Sir Didst not thou sowe good Seed in thy Field whence then hath it tares In our discourse upon this Text I shall present you with an Explication and an Application an Explication for the Text an Application for the time In the first general the Explication we shall behold the servants of this Parable in their addresse unto their Master and their conference with him In the next general the Application we shall endeavour a discovery of those tares and errors which have been sowen by Satan in this Field of God And first we must begin with the Explication and therein with the matter of address Sic accedentes sâ—rvi patris-familias so the servants of the Housholder came c. Frustra quaeritur quod per viam suam non quaeritur There is but one way leading to the truth which they that misse do rather wander then travel and shall finde their journey at the last without end or profit The servants of the Heavenly Husbandman were at a losse among themselves touching the unde of these â—ares That there they were even ripe and ready for the Harvest that they saw too plainly but how they came there who it was that sowed them was not yet discovered nor was it probable that they who had committed so great a villany would confess the action The taking of their opportunity cùm dormirent homines when as the servants were asleep did manifestly shew that by whomever it was done it was intended for a work of darkness and therefore very little hope that they themselves would bring it to the open light In this uncertainty there could be found no better way to inform themselves then to repair unto the Lord the celestiall Housholder whose eyes do neither sleep nor slumber Gods eye is alwayes open though his servants sleep Interest tenebris saith Minutius no darknesse is so grosse which he cannot penetrate nor fact so secret and obscure which he discerns not The Lord is totus oculus totum lumen as the Father hath it and therefore cannot be kept ignorant of mens private practises how close soever they are carried Can any man hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him saith the Lord Almighty Besides there was a ruled case in the point before it was the Custom of the Jewish Church in all doubtful cases as long as they continued in Gods grace and favour to ask for counsel of the Lord. No resolution so perspicuous as that which came from God in his holy Tabernacle or was delivered by his Seers Our Saviour Christ as he is Deus de Deo God of God so he is also lumen de lumine light of light His providence as watchful and his eye as piercing as that of his Almighty Father No better resolution of a doubtful case then that which might be had from him Domine quò eamus Lord saith St. Peter whither shall we go thou hast the words of everlasting life Himself our blessed Saviour gives them more incouragement to have recourse to him in their doubts and difficulties Ego sum via veritas vita I am the way the truth and the life John 14. The servants of my Text need not make a question either of finding out the truth which they were in search of or gaining life eternal which they sought by truth when he which was the Journies end was the way also And therefore in my minde St. Bernard descants very pretily on that Text of Scripture Eamus ergo post Christum quia est veritas per Christum quia est via ad Christum quia est vita Let us walk after Christ because he is the truth by Christ because he is the way to Christ because he is life St. Austin also gives us a good hint for our direction in this journey both for truth and life Non est quò eamus nisi ad te non est quà eamus nisi per te Whither O Lord shall we repair but to thee and which way shall we come unto thee if we come not by thee The Servants here were well acquainted with this way they knew none better that howsoever God inhabits in luce inaccessibili in light inaccessible yet he was easie of access unto them that fear him and therefore accedentes they came unto him Accedentes autem servi So the Servants came The servants in the plural number they came not one by one to make their own excuse apart they came all together They had been faulty all alike and therefore if a check were feared good reason they should be all partakers of it The Heathen Orator thought it an equitable point ut qui in eadem causa fuerunt in eadem item essent fortuna that they who had been interessed in the self-same business should beare their equal shares in the self same fortune but this was not the business that they were in quest of Their errand was not only to be satisfied upon the unde haec zizania whence the tares should come but to enquire their Masters pleasure what he thought sitting to be done on the discovery vis imus colligimus
excongruo as condigno the number and nature of the Sacraments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like perplexities Their new distinctions and new termes of Art new notions or indeed new nothings what served they for but the ostentation of their singularities in point of learning to the no small increase of disputations and decrease of piety Nor hath it fared much better with the Chutch in these latter times She is and hath been long afflicted with this New Disease New Doctrines now are no lesse pleasing to the people then once newes at Athens and many a man we have as there that spends his time for nothing else then to hear new things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Greek some Doctrine of the newest fashion In case they have not what they look for then presently what would this babler have say some he seemes to be a setter forth of strange Gods say others because perhaps he preached unto them touching obedience and conformity to the publick Government Such being the humour of the people Sermonibus opinantium faciles praebere aures to hearken greedily to such Sermons as are fraught with fancies whoever hath the art to feed that humor shall have many followers And who I pray you would not buy a company at so cheap a rate for fear of hazarding so poor a trifle as the Churches peace Desire of glory leads the way to desire of gain or indeed cannot go without it He that doth feed upon the aire of popular applause and live upon the breath of acclamation may carry all his dinner in an empty belly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T is money makes the man said the old Greek Proverb And therefore they that are vain-glorious and hunt for popular applause amongst their followers are for the most part also covetous and suck no small advantage from them too Wer 't not for spes dolosi affulserit nummi the flattering hopes of filthy lucre digito monstrari would not serve the turn Desire of gain and love of money are the predominant affections that the enemy works on The love of money saith the Apostle is the root of all evill the which whilest some have coveted after à fide erraverunt they have erred from the faith And if that men subvert whole houses and teach things they should not do we not finde it by experience that it is turpis lueri gratiâ even for the sake of filthy lucre Certain it is the prosecution of these covetous hopes hath given the enemy no small advantage in the disseminating of his tares in the field of God It hath been magnus laqueus diaboli a great snare of Satans who no sooner found that Clergy-men were covetous and intent on riches but streight he layed before them many opportunities to feed that humour As for example The Church was used according to the rigor of the primitive times to enjoyne strict and tedious penance on the party criminall why might not this be turned to money Hence came the preaching and the prizing too of Indulgences and the year of Jubile no small Revenue of the Popedom Christ had left power unto his Ministers to absolve the penitent and to remit the sins of a contrite person may not some gain be made of that may not a pardon be obtained for money as a thing of course yes questionless that not for the present only but many thousand years to come not for poor trifles only or peccadillos but such as a religious ear would abhor to think of non pro praeteritis tantùm sed pro futuris not for sins past only but for those to come the gates of Heaven are never opened with more speed to the formall penitent then by silver keyes Some of the Fathers speak of a fire of Purgatory though doubtingly and as a matter not agreed on might not that fire be made to warm their Kitchins and prepare all them in a readiness for the common Refectory The Passion of our Lord and Saviour was a sufficient sacrifice both for quick and dead Might not the Masse or the commemoration of that sacrifice be taught to be of equall value And having taught the people so might they not sell their Masses at a dearer rate then the false traytor sold his Master whom the Masse commemorates The times began to be exceedingly inclined to superstition Wer 't not an excellent piece of cunning to feed that humour and put the people to the charge of the entertainment From hence came shrines and vowes to Saints and Pilgrimages and which was worst of all false and feigned miracles only to gain greater reputation to their shrines and temples and the more profit to themselves I could hunt further on this sent but that I have more game to follow and for the rest refer it to the Poet Mantuan Now as ambition and vain-glory and the love of money have prevailed on some and made them fit and ready for the Devils service so discontent and envy have perswaded as much with others Florinus never had been so ungracious as to make God the Authour of sin or stained the peoples eares with so lewd a blasphemy but that he had been formerly degraded from the holy Priesthood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius hath it The discontent he took upon that disgrace made him apt to mischief and Satan took the opportunity to make him useful for his purpose Nor ever had Aerius broached this foolish fancy Episcopum nulla ratione debere discerni that Priests and Bishops were all one but that he saw Eustathius his companion onâ—e advanced unto a Bishoprick before him Himself as Epiphanius doth relate the Story 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did very earnestly affect that dignity but he could not get it Eustathius was preferred before him hence began the quarrel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it This envy at the fortunes and preferment of another man made him first quarrel with Eustathius though his very Friend and after with the Calling with the very dignity Just so the Fox complained that the Grapes were sowre because he saw he could not reach them Whether this folly or this frenzy rather for Epiphanius calls it in plain termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a frantick heresie be not revived again on the self-same grounds whether Episcopacy be not now cryed down by those especially who either look with envious eyes on the preferment of their betters or else are discontented at their own misfortune in not attaining to that eminency in the Church of God is no hard matter to determine This I am sure and speak it upon good Authority that if some men had been advanced unto those honours which they laboured for and others had attained those Bishopricks which they were in quest of we had not been disquieted with those Schismes and ruptures wherewith the Church of God is now torn in
pieces Envy and ignorance sometimes go together Sure I am ignoratio recti invidia are so placed in Tacitus This we account not as a passion or affection in the minde of man unless it be a voluntary and affected ignorance but as weakness or defect And yet of this the enemy hath raised himself a greater fortune then out of any of the rest There was a time when ignorance was in request the tenth Age from Christ the very next to that wherein hell brake loose a dark and sullen night of ignorance in which the servants of the Husbandman did not only slumber but slept and snorted A seculum obscurum as Baronius a seculum infelix an unhappy Age wherein was little reading and lesse writing saith the Cardinall Bellarmine An age quite destitute of eminent men both for wit and learning as their Bishop Genebrard Can we conceive the enemy let slip the opportunity of so dark a night and slept for company or that he would not husband it to his best advantage when there was either none so vigilant as to watch his doings or so industrious as to commit to writing what they had observed What fitter time then this to sowe the seeds of transubstantiation and adoration of the Host with all those severall points and Articles those uncouth Ceremonies and gesticulations which depend upon it when all divine and humane learning were laid up in silence What fitter time then this to seal up the Bible and take the Scriptures from the Laity when there was such a fair pretence that few or none could understand it What fitter time then this to captivate mens understandings to the Churches dictates and to advance their own traditions into the Chair and Throne of the Word of God when men were taught to the great obloquy and contempt of learning that ignorance was the mother of devotion And in a word what fitter time then this to open and bring forth the tares of Image-worship and invocation of the Saints and prayer for the dead and restraint from marriage the seeds whereof were sowen in those slumbring times which usher'd in this Epidemicall and dismall darkness when men had wilfully sealed up their eyes and professed blinde obedience to the Popes decrees Here was a season for the nonce to spread abroad false Doctrines and unsound opinions The Devill had been an Asse indeed if he had not spyed it And yet it is not easie to determine neither whether the negligence both of Priest and people did not as much promote the purpose of the enemy as did their ignorance Now for this double kind of negligence that which we charge upon the people is circa custodiam personae suae touching the looking to themselves that which we charge upon the Priest circa custodiam gregis sui touching the looking to his Flock â— The people I find faulty in these two respects 1. In not doing of their duties and 2dly In not claiming of their dues The Church in the first Ages of it used every day to celebrate the blessed Sacrament which thereupon St. Ambrose calls quotidianum cibum our daily bread The times were then severe and quick the people pious and devout and few there were that failed to be present at it But when the Sun of peace and liberty shined upon the Church the people grew remisse and careless took cold in their devotions and forbare the Church and left the Priest who by the ancient Canons was to do this Office to say his lesson to himself By this meanes and no other came in private Masses wherein the Priest participates by himself alone not upon any positive constitution which debarres the people but for defect of piety and devotion in them Harding other learned men in the Church of Rome so excuse the matter and not perhaps without just reason But certainly the Priest was to blame the while who either did not call upon them to attend their duties or in default thereof did not proceed against them as he should have done according to the ancient Discipline But more to blame no doubt was the Church of Rome who on complaint of the abuse not only hath ordained no remedy for the recalling of the people to the primitive custom but hath established and confirmed these private Masses maugre all opposition and resistance inflicting an Anathema upon every one that dares dâ—sprove them As then the people were first faulty in the not doing of their duties so we shall finde them as deficient in the second point for the not claiming of their dues For if the question should be asked how and by whom the Laity were first denied the Cup in the blessed Sacrament It must be answered the People lost it by degrees for want of putting in their claim to assert the title for not demanding the performance of our Saviours will delivered and declared in his holy Testament That it was instituted in both kinds by Christ administred by St. Paul in both kindes at Corinth and that it was so used in other places during 600 years and upwards is confessed by Harding in his reply to B. Jewell When and upon what Motives and by whose Authority this innovation was first made is not yet agreed upon among themselves Greg. de Valentia who took much pains in the examination of this business returns an Ignoramus or a minimè constat unto all these Queries and at last is fain to father it upon the usage of the Church and consent of the faithfull For the consent or at the least the not gainsaying of the faithful there is no doubt of that for ought I can finde and that 's the point we now complain of But for the usage of the Church which also he pretends to make up the matter that came in of late Thomas Aquinas who lived about 300 years ago no more hath delivered plainly calicem in quibusdam locis populo non dari that the Cup was not then administred unto the people in some certain places An undeniable Argument that it was universally received then in all places else Nor was it ever otherwise determined that I can hear of till the Assembly held at Constance for I can hardly think that it was a Councel decreed it against Christ himself with a non obstante which after was confirmed and ratified in that of Trent Now as the Prophet once complained as was the People then such was the Priest and as the Priest was then such were the People both ignorant alike and both alike negligent The negligence incumbent on the Priests was of two sorts also first in not teaching of the People as they ought to do and 2dly in not applying speedy and peculiar remedies to emergent mischiefs The Priests lips by the Lords appointment were to preserve knowledge and at their mouthes the people were to seek the same so the Prophet Malachi But when the Priest became quite destitute of
courage that they would be going It seemes they thought it not becomming to sit still at home and spend their time in consultations how and by what close meanes without the open hazard of their lives and fortunes so great a business as that was might be best effected The mischief which they feared was imminent not capable of long debates of slow and lingring deliberations Dum quid sis dubitas j am potes esse nihil And whilest they spent the time in Disputes and Questions casting of doubts and raising casuall or emergent scruples the mischief which they feared might have fallen upon them 'T is true the enterprise was great and full of danger and therefore was to be encountred with an equall courage both in the onset and pursuit The greater the attempt was conceived to be the braver resolutions were required in them that durst undertake it Poor are the spirits of those men who in a time of common danger when the whole Church is threatned and the State oppressed dare not go forth to meet an approching mischief To sink under the burden of calamitous fortune and not to struggle with adversity is the next way to tempt and invite it to us When troubles are at hand go forth to meet them Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentiùs ito was a brave old Rule both given and practised by the Heathens in matters of farre lesse concernment then the present business And 't was a gallant speech of Pompey worthy the Reputation and Renown of so great a spirit Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam He was imployed by his Country the State of Rome to scoure the Seas and bring in such provisions of Corn and Victuall as the Town then wante◠from which when some who seemed to be his friends disswaded him urging the difficulty of the action and the apparent hazards he was like to run he answered that his going was more necessary then his life could be Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam No life could be so precious to him as his Countries safety and therefore go he would though the windes said nay and all the forces of the World had been raised against him But Pompey shall not go alone the Church of Christ can yield him Equals though Rome yielded none Pompejusque parem which was there a Paradox is here the ordinary practise of Gods Saints and Servants More then so major hic Pompeio what speciall Servant is there of the Lord our God who hath not shewen a braver and more noble courage When Moses was imployed by God on so sowre a Message as to solicit Pharaoh the Egyptian Tyrant for the dismission of the House of Israel what dangers might not he have feared what reasons might not fairly have been pretended to excuse the Journey And when he was resolved upon it what difficulties did he meet with how many times was he repulsed with threats and terrors yet God no oftner said to Moses though he said it often Ingredere ad Pharaonem Go unto Pharaoh that bloody Butcher of my Children that merciless oppressor of my people Israel and tell him that he shall no longer keep them in that house of bondage but Moses went immediatly upon the errand It was no need to bid him hast when the afflictions of his people and the necessities of that poor Church did require his going Moses though celebrated in the Scripture for a man of meekness mitissimus super omnes homines as the Vulgar reads it wanted not courage to go on when the Lord commanded But this perhaps shewed more of his obedience then his resolution and Moses did no more in this then the other Prophets none of which stayed behind or put off the service excepting once the Prophet Jonah when God bad them go Let us next therefore look on the Prophet Esay who when God wanted one to reform his Church and seemed thus to proclaim his wants Quem mittam quis ibit nobis Whom shall I send who will go forth for us on this desperate and ungrateful service made offer on his own accord to undertake it Ecce ego mitte me Here am I saith the Prophet let me be sent and see if I decline the business or dare not put my self on the undertaking The Prophet was resolved upon the imus to go as soon as he perceived the Churches dangers He stayed but for his Mission Commission Vis imus Wilt thou that we go And yet we are not come to the best examples which the Church yields us in this case The Prophets though they were imployed by the Lord their God in matters of this thankless and invidious nature yet were they seldom sent abroad beyond the bounds and limits of their native Countrey where they were countenanced and backed with their friends and kindred It was not so with the Apostles their Ite was of a more large almost an infinite extent Ite in omnes gentes Go into all the World and preach the Gospel And they were told before they undertook the business Ecce mitto vos Behold I send you forth as sheep amongst the Wolves and needs must tell you beforehand that you shall be convented before Kings and Councels the Rulers of the Synagogue and the Court of Sanhedrim of the Elders by whom ye shall be buffeted and reviled condemned and executed More then so yet Satanas expetivit Satan himself desires to sift and winnow you And though I give you power to cast out Devils yet do not think that Satan will so easily forgo his hold or lose the Kingdom which he hath so long possessed in the souls of men T is neither against Principalities and Powers nor only against flesh and blood that you are to wrestle but against the Devil and his Angels against the Rulers of the darkness of this present world yet finde we not that any of those blessed Spirits was therewith discouraged or did not think themselves obliged the rather to fulfill their Ministry because it seemed so full of danger Which of them did not travel both Lands and Seas when once the Ite was pronounced Which of them might not well have said in the Poets Language Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris What corner was there of the Earth which they went not to in which they did not cultivate the Field of God and in so doing bid defiance to the powers of darknesse We must not look to finde a Parallel to the Apostles in the Ages following And yet the servants of my Text in point of courage came not much behind whom neither the report of so great an Enemy as had been practising of late in the Field of God could terrifie from going forth to secure the Harvest nor the complexion of the Tares which was fair and specious could hinder or divert from offering their endeavours to root them out He that had seen the